Friday, February 17, 2017

Just cause deterrence is different in cyber doesn't mean it doesn't exist

Are there Jedi out there the Empire cannot defeat?

That's a long title for a blog post. But ask yourself, as I had to ask Mara Tam today: Do we always have escalatory dominance over non-state players in cyber? I'm not sure we do.

What does that mean for cyber deterrence or for our overall strategy or for the Tallinn team's insistence that only States need be taken into account in their legal analysis? (Note: Not good things.)

That said, Immunity's deterrence against smaller states has always been: I will spend the next ten years building a team and a full toolchain to take you on if you mess with our people and we catch you, which we might. Having a very very long timeline of action is of great value in cyber.